Children for the Führer

The SS “Lebensborn” takes care of the “Aryan” offspring

The mass deaths of the First World War coupled with the social and economic dislocation of the post-war period resulted in a significant decline in the German birth rate during the Weimar Republic. Concerned by the prospect of a demographic trough, the Third Reich introduced a number of pro-natalist policies, including loans for married couples with reduced payments for every child born. For his part, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler was worried by the number of abortions of unwanted children. He established the Lebensborn organization to save the “Nordic race” from what he saw as its impending demise and to breed a “nobility of the future”. Lebensborn set up homes for unmarried mothers, where they could give birth to their illegitimate children anonymously and place them for adoption by SS families.

The scale of casualties during the Second World War prompted Lebensborn to expand its remit. SS soldiers kidnapped children with an “Aryan” appearance in occupied territories and sent them to Germany to be raised as Germans. The younger children were given fake birth certificates with different names and were forced to speak German in their new families. Himmler also made plans for the post-war period, intending to build new homes for the hundreds of thousands of women who would be unable to find husbands. This plan was never realized.